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Today's News - Christmas Eve, Tuesday, December 24, 2013

State police say that someone robbed a Cambria County convenience store on Sunday night. A person wearing a ski mask and dark clothing entered Pit Stop on Lake Street in South Fork around 10:30, showed the clerk a gun and demanded money. The robber got away with an undetermined amount of cash. The investigation continues.
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Last week, brothers William and Ron Kuchera, former owners of Kuchera Defense Systems in Windber, were sentenced to five years probation and 18 months of house arrest after they pleaded guilty to defrauding the federal government. Now a U.S. probation officer has released details about their punishment, says “The Tribune-Democrat.” According to the 26-year veteran, the brothers will be allowed to leave home for work, church services and other reasons approved by their probation officer. The brothers will wear electronic tracking monitors.
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A pair of Somerset men allegedly broke into a store in Meyersdale and stole over $11,000 worth of tires, then were caught by authorities when they tried to sell them in Bedford County. 28-year-old Joshua Clites and 31-year-old Mark Haney are suspected of robbing Maple City Tire two weeks ago. Over $6,500 worth of the missing tires have been recovered.
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Almost 70,000 people in Pennsylvania are poised to lose their jobless benefits at the end of the week. Unless Congress extends the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Program, the benefits will disappear on Saturday. The program was started by President George W. Bush in 2008 to help people cope with the recession.
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People who want to sign up for health insurance on the new state and federal exchanges have an extra day to do it. Today is the new deadline in order to be insured by January 1st. The reason? The Obama administration cites "high demand and the fact that consumers may be enrolling from multiple time zones" on HealthCare.Gov, the federal website for the new exchanges.
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The Justice Department is investigating Target's computer security, after hackers stole credit and debit card data from millions of customers. Target announced last week that hackers stole credit and debit card data from an estimated 40 million customer accounts. The security breach involved store sales between November 27th and December 15th.
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It will be a white Christmas Eve across the northern Rockies, northern Plains and Upper Midwest. The heaviest snow will hit the higher elevations of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. Lake-effect snow will also fall in the Great Lakes region and in the northern Appalachians.
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More than a million Americans will see their long-term emergency federal unemployment insurance benefits end on Saturday. Congress went home for the holidays without extending those benefits, which were introduced in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
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Target is now under investigation by the Justice Department after hackers stole credit and debit card data from millions of customers. Target announced last week that hackers stole credit and debit card data from an estimated 40 million customer accounts. The security breach involved store sales between November 27th and December 15th. Customers have filed at least five lawsuits against Target so far.
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Both Hyundai and Kia will spend as much as $395 million to settle lawsuits by customers who claim the companies overstated fuel economy ratings for about 900,000 cars and light trucks. The settlement involves vehicles from the 2011 to 2013 model years.
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People who work for the federal government are getting their first pay raise in four years. President Obama signed an executive order establishing pay scales for civilian and military personnel for 2014. They'll get a one percent pay hike.
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A judge has ordered that a 13-year-old California girl be kept on a ventilator at Children's Hospital Oakland for another week. Attorney Christopher Dolan represents the family of Jahi McMath. The teenager had major complications following a tonsillectomy two weeks ago and was later declared brain dead by doctors.
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NASA says the Christmas Eve spacewalk planned at the International Space Station should take care of repairs on a problem cooling line. Mission Control says unless something comes up, two astronauts expect to finish installing a new ammonia pump today. The faulty pump was removed Saturday in a spacewalk by astronauts Michael Hopkins and Rick Mastracchio.
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A Los Angeles woman who made hundreds of bogus 911 calls is going to serve jail time. City Attorney officials say Linette Young has been sentenced to 180 days in jail and three years probation after being convicted on multiple charges of making annoying 911 calls and filing false emergency reports. Prosecutors say Young called 911 dispatchers up to six times a day between January and September of this year.
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"Duck Dynasty" star Phil Robertson's fans are coming to his defense in droves. A recently started Change.org petition calling for a boycott of A&E if Robertson isn't allowed to return had garnered nearly 115-thousand signatures by this morning. The network put the reality star on "indefinite hiatus" last week for telling "GQ" magazine he thought homosexuality was a sin.
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NORAD will be tracking Santa again this year as he makes his rounds on Christmas Eve. Families logging on at noradsanta.org can watch Santa's progress as the "Jolly Old Elf" and his reindeer fly around the globe starting at 6 a.m. Eastern.
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There is no room at any of the inns in Bethlehem on this Christmas Eve. All 33-hundred hotel rooms in the town on the occupied West Bank are booked. Civic and business leaders hope the holiday will help bring an economic recovery since Bethlehem's economy has been struggling.